In an 1899 contest sponsored by a literary magazine, a reader proposed the word whifflement to mean “an object of small importance.” This is part of a complete episode.
Scientists decided to name some newly discovered tree frogs in Madagascar based on the boops and trills they make, which reminded the researchers of Star Trek. Among the scientific names for these critters that belong to the rare Boophis frog genus...
The phrase fight the good fight, which means to “try one’s best” and “attempt to do what’s right” is inspired second of the epistles to Timothy attributed to the apostle Paul: “I have fought a good fight, I...
Why would we describe something as having a meteoric rise when meteors fall to the ground? The adjective meteoric refers to the speed and duration of a meteor, not its direction. This is part of a complete episode.
Quiz Guy John Chaneski came across the term hugger-mugger, which inspired a puzzle with answers that involve two words, each ending in -er. For example, in the past these were attached using a sticky surface, but these days they’re made from...
Brenna, a nurse in Rapid City, South Dakota, says she was on a hospital elevator full of people and when the doors opened and someone in the back was trying to get off, she piped up with One side or a leg off!, but no one understood that phrase. It...